In event venues and the like, people often take still images and videos at the same time as others using different imaging devices (e.g., digital cameras and digital camcorders). Especially at events such as sports days, it is often the case that a father keeps a digital camcorder and a mother keeps a digital camera, or vice versa, so they can take both still images and videos at the same time. Needless to say, other parents would be doing the same thing. As such, at many events, it is often the case that a number of attendees take still images and videos at the same time from different angles. Since all of these still images and videos show the same event taken from different angles, they may be integrally considered as multi-angle content, so to speak.
Multi-angle content is generated by aggregating videos and still images taken from different angles. Although it has been possible to switch between these videos/still images via a user operation, the authoring has been conventionally required with use of an editing device or the like when generating the multi-angle content. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an image playback device that enables a user to switch between images taken by different cameras and plays back the images selected by the user's switch operation.
Furthermore, Patent Document 2 discloses a multi-angle playback device that plays back videos that were taken individually. This multi-angle playback device allows switching between videos that were partially or entirely taken during the same time period as other videos.
Furthermore, Patent Document 3 discloses an image playback/display device that displays each still image for a predetermined time period. The image playback/display device of Patent Document 3 can perform multi-angle playback of videos and still images without editing by, after sorting the videos and still images, simultaneously displaying some of the videos and still images that were partially or entirely taken during the same time period as other videos and still images.
Patent Document 1:
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H07-107437
Patent Document 2:
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-101957
Patent Document 3:
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-120278